QI feels like it's always been on our televisions teaching us about bonus moons and bizarre animals and the inner workings of Alan Davies' brain. So when Stephen Fry announced he was leaving the show, we were momentarily thrown into panic - could it ever be the same again? Could we cope with change?

Luckily, the BBC confirmed that long-term quiz-master Sandi Toksvig (of The News Quiz and Fifteen To One) would be taking over from Stephen - and we couldn't think of a better replacement. But what will she be like as a QI host? Read on for everything she had to say about exactly that…

In fact, QI has put on live stage shows in the past - and Sandi once sat in the host's chair. "The very first time I hosted QI was at a charity event in a theatre," she explained. "Stephen was suddenly unavailable and I stepped in at the last minute to host the show, and it was the very first time I sat in the helm and loved it - absolutely loved it. I thought then, 'Wow, this job? I must say I'm not a highly ambitious person but I want this job'."

2. YES, SHE WAS QUITE NERVOUS ABOUT TAKING OVER ACTUALLY

Sandi revealed that she had Stephen's blessing (they've been friends since they met at university when they were 19), but she admitted that she got "butterflies" before sitting in the QI chair for the first time. "But you can't be thinking about trying to replace somebody - you have to only think about being yourself," she said. "So I'm not a mini-me, I'm not Stephanie Fry - they didn't hire me because the channel's now paying by the inch!"

"I'm still in the same chair that Stephen was using," Sandi revealed. "And I couldn't be seen properly! So the chair is now on a little platform, which nobody knows about. It's a little step up to get into the chair, so that's the only thing. It's a bit more like an umpire's chair now than anything else."

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4. THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN SANDI AND ALAN DAVIES IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT

Don't expect it to be quite the same as Stephen and Alan's very specific little relationship. "I don't tell him off," Sandi explained. "I'm very fond of him. It's possible I'm on the turn for Alan Davies! We have a different dynamic, of course, but we did sob with laughter, which was wonderful. I'm so thrilled that he's still part of the team - I think he's an essential part of it, and he really shone. He's my new showbusiness husband."

"We did cry with laughter," Sandi said. "There were moments where I thought the audience was going to explode because they were laughing so much. I don't want to give too much away but there is a moment when Alan Davies does an impersonation of a female trout having a fake orgasm. Honest to God, one of the funniest moments I have ever been present at in telly."

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6. THE QI ELVES ARE GONE! (WELL, RENAMED AT LEAST)

The elves are one of the most iconic parts of QI, the genius question masters who introduce us to the bizarre facts that make up the show. But Sandi revealed that she put her stamp on them: "I've renamed the elves - I call them 'nisse' now, which is the Danish word for elves. So they all got a little nisse to say thank you, and before the show they all came to the house and I made them a big Danish dinner." WE WANT TO GO. That's not all, though: "For our Christmas special, we all wore nisse hats," Sandi revealed. "There is probably more Danish-ness now in the show than there was previously - I think that's fair to say."

"I'm less professorial and more inclined to try and say, 'No, you do know', and I'll be more encouraging to try to get the person who's trying to answer the question to do so. And that isn't a criticism in any way of Stephen's style - he was amazing and extraordinary. We're different and have a different way of doing it. There's a couple of moments where I climb on the desk and demonstrate things - I'm not sure that's happened before. I'm not sure the desk would have taken Stephen's weight! We actually had little steps to get me up."

8. SHE SEES HERSELF STICKING AROUND ON QI FOR A LONG TIME

"In an ideal world, Stephen's done the first half of the alphabet and I will do the second," she said. "We're already prepping for the next series and thinking about it. You never know how the world's going to work out, but it would be nice if Stephen and I did it together."

"One of the things I've been campaigning for is women in media, and I'm a woman in charge of this kind of programme which has great intellectual content as well as being comedic," she said. "I think it's a wonderful step forward in telly, so I was thrilled about that… But there's work still to be done I think. The gender imbalance is still not great on TV. And it brings a different tone to a show when a woman's in charge, that's all. It's not like we're funnier or better or any of those things - it's a different tone, and why not have the full range? I think we're quite a long way from that - in my lifetime I've lost work for being a woman. I didn't get Have I Got News For You - we did two showreels and it was me and Angus [Deayton], and Angus was brilliant, but I didn't get it and they told me it was because I was a woman."

10. THERE'S GOING TO BE MORE NEW TALENT ON THE SHOW…

"I'm very keen to encourage new people who haven't done the show before," Sandi explained. "I do think it's quite an intimidating show to be on…. I take the time with the new guests to sit with them. 'Have you got any questions? Is there anything I can do? Do you want to have a little signal to me that you feel like you're drowning?'" After all, QI can be pretty intense. "It's a bit like tennis at a high level sometimes - the ball goes very fast," Sandi joked. "So you just need to make sure they have the courage to come in."

"It was hilarious - he'd never done the show," Sandi revealed. "And what I realised is that he was sitting there and he had no idea what the show was, he had no idea how it worked. And it just took it off in a completely different direction and he suddenly started telling stories about something that was nothing to do with anything and it was wonderful." But Sandi admitted that she was a little starstruck by Jerry, adding: "I told him a lot about my affairs with my uncle."

12. SANDI WANTS TO BROADCAST QI LIVE

Can you imagine how good that would be? "It will never happen," she said. "But I would love, love, love the television audience to experience what's happening in the room, mistakes and all. Including the bit where somebody goes, 'I don't know, waaaah!' I would love that, but I think that's probably not going to happen." But it would be great, right? "We must campaign for it, mustn't we?" Sandi said. "I think it would be so much fun - but there may be some anxiety about language!"